Check If An App Can Be Shared Through Family Sharing in iOS 8 [How-to]

We’ve written about Family Sharing in iOS 8, a feature that has made enough headlines already. Family Sharing is a brand-new feature that lets you share your apps/music/movies/TV show purchases with up to six members of your family. Basically, pay once, use it across multiple accounts.

But Family Sharing is largely dependent on the app developer / content developer. That is, you can only share apps which are made to be shared or compatible with Family sharing. If an app doesn’t support family sharing, you can’t share it with your family no matter what. So how do you check this?

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Turns out, the App Store is rolling out a new category under app Information.

How to Find If An App Can Be Shared Through Family Sharing in iOS 8

Open the App Store

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Go to the app’s page (search and then tap on the app)

Scroll down to the Information section (under the Details tab)

Now, check Family Sharing

It should either show Yes or Not Available

At the time of writing this, this is a very new feature that the App Store seems to have introduced. Based on the info we have, the Family Sharing feature shows up on Sketchbook Mobile (an app that went free recently.)

Obviously, if an app shows Family Sharing Yes, you can buy the app and share it. Your family members can download and use the app for free.

In the case of the Sketchbook Mobile, you’ll also notice that there’s a date info too (June 13, 2014). What it means is that if you purchased the app after this date, you can share it with your family. Looks like app developers can set a date limit to enable Family Sharing only for purchases made after a specific date.